


the blue realms, inverted waves.

by sismorphene



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Nomad people, mermaid au, sharks and dolphins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-03
Updated: 2014-10-03
Packaged: 2018-02-19 18:36:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2398670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sismorphene/pseuds/sismorphene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Head thrown back, letting go</em>
  <br/>
  <em>I breathe in ecstatically</em>
  <br/>
  <em>the light seaside breezes</em>
  <br/>
  <em>lolling back, I unwind</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <em>and greet the dawning day</em><br/><em>the loose procession of forms</em><br/><em>crystallized in the sky</em><br/><em>the blue realms</em><br/><em>inverted waves</em></p><p> </p><p>  <em>ocean and ether face to face</em><br/><em>silently converse</em><br/><em>in ways that we, earthbound</em><br/><em>can't truly understand</em></p><p> </p><p>In a huge ocean, two mermen travel. Both on different quests: one alone, unwillingly; the other one, alone as well, for the moment, but by choice.<br/>They meet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the blue realms, inverted waves.

**Author's Note:**

> above: translation of voix sereines by alcest. if haru would be a music genre, it'd be post-rock.
> 
> this is a birthday gift to lovely frida. ✿ happy belated birtday, cutie.  
> art is drawn by myra.  
> frida is chartot over at tumblr, and myra is reinardfox.
> 
> myra and i came up with this au together, and if you want details we're happy to share them. we have _lots_.

Rin was getting antsy.

He _was_ doing what he loved the most – swimming around, fast, hunting – but still he felt irritation welling up when he realized it didn't give him the same satisfaction as it would if Sousuke was with him. Rin growled and swam a bit further towards the ocean floor to lie down for a while. Stupid rules, stupid traditions. All mermen and mermaids in Rin’s tribe had to do a journey much like the one he was currently on once in their teens, to find themselves and learn to live alone… but, Rin was, as mentioned, getting bored. So, so, so bored. Lonesomeness wasn't what he was built for, simply put.

It was mostly pride holding him back from just turning his tail around to return to his family and friends, but also the fact that he wasn't going to be allowed into the society again for another twelve months anyway.

Again: stupid traditions.

What did he need this for, again? He would surely want to return to his birthplace at the end of his journey; the probability of him deciding to start a colony of his own wasn't very big. Some merpeople settled for that in the end – to start their life anew with a whole new place and family.

Oh yes, that was usually the main reason for not returning to the original settlement. Finding a partner from another tribe, which itself wasn't very common – after all, the different tribes were relatively few and evenly distributed over the oceans with quite some distance between them; this to give the roaming teenagers space and to minimize the risk of clashes.

Being hunters, fights between the shark tribes often ended up coloring the sea red.

And in Rin's current annoyed state, he probably would've torn any person that irritated him to shreds.

An interesting smell suddenly entered Rin's senses, and he perked up, supporting himself on his elbows to look for the source. His sight was better than some, but still not very good – a common trait among his kin – so it took a while before he spotted the other being. It was another merperson, a boy, if he could trust his eyes, and Rin felt excitement rise. He really needed to get rid of some of the itching annoyance coursing through his body, and what would be better than fighting someone that probably was in a situation very similar to his own?

Rin grinned, a smile filled with both happiness and lots of sharp teeth, and it gave him a look that would terrify most probably anyone. He got ready to approach the other boy, but halted when he saw what the other was doing. Was he… going up to the surface? Why would he do that? Didn't he know how close to shore they were? Rin had come to this place to catch fish that only appeared in shallower waters… but this boy didn't seem to be looking for fish. He didn't have a hunter’s body. He was sleeker, and wore some kind of seaweed sash around his waist, tied on more firmly with another piece of weed over his right shoulder.

After the boy had done… whatever he did… quickly above the surface, he dove down again, fast, really fast, and Rin hid just as quickly behind the rock to not get caught staring.

Because stare he did.

The other boy was obviously looking for something – Rin concluded it had to be some kind of mollusks – and repeated the motion of going up towards the surface several times. He was _so_ _fast_ – maybe even faster than Sousuke – but this boy had a certain grace to him that Rin's old friend did not.

It was mesmerizing.

 

It hit him first after maybe ten minutes of watching the boy swim that _oh_ , he was _breathing_ above the water.

He was another kind of merman than Rin.

Excitement pierced him once again, and a smile crept up towards his ears – this time filled with pure glee.

Just as he decided on approaching the other boy, a panic-ridden squeak was heard from further out in the ocean, and Rin hid behind his rock, growling softly, cursing the intruder.

It was another merman, with a more buff build than the first boy. He looked devastated and incredibly stressed, and spoke to the smaller boy with distressed sounds. He had lowered his tone when he came closer, and that in combination with his dolphin-like accent made it hard for Rin to catch what he was saying. He collected something along the lines of, “ _what are you doing here_ ,” “ _it’s so close to the shore_ ,” “ ** _dangerous_** ,” “ _we’re moving **today**_ ,” and then finally “ _let’s go up_ ,” and with that, they both swam upwards to continue their conversation above, making it impossible for Rin to understand. Made sense, though, that they would communicate in ways similar to humans when they had the same air-breathing ability.

Rin was truly and fully fascinated.

When the two boys started swimming towards deeper waters, Rin followed.

 

~

 

Makoto hadn’t exaggerated after all, Haruka noted when they made it back to their flock.

Most of the people had already gathered all of their things, bunched up in huge satchels on their backs, and retreated from the small island Haruka’s caravan had set up their base on for the past two months or so. Haruka didn’t need to see the other side of it to know how completely barren the island would look without the decorations and signs of life that the colony had brought, albeit for a short time.

He stayed by the rockier backside instead, looking listlessly at the few hunters who were still perched up there, packing up their game and firmly fastening their weapons. Operations like that were easier above water, without risk of dropping the valuable articles into the abyss. A couple of gulls were watching them – certainly more intensely than Haruka.

Haruka instead turned to Makoto, who just had returned from his family.

“For how long will we be traveling this time?”

Makoto smiled at him softly. It seemed his earlier distress had faded away as soon as they had left the shallower waters.

“They don’t know yet how long it will take. Some of the females have had their babies during the time here, so that might slow down our pace.” When Haruka groaned, he quickly added, “It will be fine, though! Surely we can swim ahead for a bit if the leaders give us directions and permission! I asked them earlier, and the offer should still stand! We’re going south this time as well.”

“I won’t be able to dive for pearls anyway. We’ll be too far out in the ocean. The islands out here don’t have anything interesting around them.”

“Haru, cheer up. It’ll be a lovely trip. Oh, it seems the hunters are all but ready! Are you set as well, Haru?”

Haruka nodded, glanced at the sun to get a feeling for directions, and bolted off.

Makoto should be able to keep up with him.

 

~

 

Rin had followed the two other mermen at a distance, and managed to not get caught, miraculously enough. Their sense of smell really had to be terrible, Rin concluded.

When they stopped, Rin backed down further and lingered there, slightly uncomfortable with the position, so open in the water without anything to hide behind. This uneasy feeling was new to him; the open water wasn’t foreign, but he normally kept closer to the shores. He reached for his weapon at his hip in search for some familiar comfort – only to notice it wasn’t there.

Fear pierced him. He must’ve dropped it when crawling around on the rock earlier. Now he felt even more naked, and started to search for anything solid. It felt like there was an island close to where the both mermen were, but there was also an overwhelming smell of other merpeople and Rin didn’t dare swim closer.

What were this people? They were moving around, seemingly quite restless. Was there a festival going on or something, or… wait, the bigger of the two boys had said something about moving… were they of one of the nomad tribes, maybe?

Rin had heard stories about them. They apparently settled down close to various towns for about two, three months at a time, trading and selling crafts and various foods to interested merpeople, before traveling to the next place. There had never been any of those tribes close to his home, but maybe the sharks simply were too intimidating.

The buzz of excitement Rin had felt earlier returned to him, mostly pushing away the thoughts of his lost weapon. It was just a stone after all. His favorite stone. Given to him by Sousuke. How was he supposed to explain that to him later? _Well, whatever, that’s a problem for another day_ , Rin thought to himself.

His stagnant position started to get really uncomfortable, and he started to move around a little to breathe more easily. Waiting for the merpeople to get going, he checked out his surroundings a bit more, carefully.

It was a beautiful day. The sun was almost at its highest, and the sunlight reached far down in the clear water. The nomad people had chosen a pretty place to settle down; Rin was sure that the island was pretty as well. He wondered if they felt sad every when they had to leave a place like this.

A ripple through the water reached him, and he turned his senses back toward the pack by the surface; they had begun moving. Rin’s heart fluttered in anticipation, and he hurried to keep up with their speed at a safe distance below them.

\---

It was nightfall by the time the group above Rin stopped, this time by a much smaller rock that barely could be called an island. The weather was still clear, and the stars and moon provided them all with moderate light.

All the merpeople started to make themselves comfortable on said rock, and Rin suddenly realized he had to sleep someplace as well. He didn’t want to go any further down – he could handle cold pretty well, but nighttime out in the middle of nowhere deep in the ocean was not to be recommended. He wondered how the caravan even had managed to find this place. Maybe they had some kind of maps? Near Rin’s house at home they had a huge rock with a map over their city and the general vicinity inscribed. He had loved tracing those lines with his fingers and dreaming of going of adventures outside their town when he was younger. Well, now that dream had come true, more or less. To swim with that kind of map would be extremely impractical though, so Rin waved the thought away.

Rin made his way to the rock as calmly as he could. He didn’t want to be seen yet; they would most probably mistake him for a shark and attack him without thinking. He was a good fighter, alright, but he didn’t have his weapon and was aware that even he wouldn’t stand a chance against a horde of professional guards.

When he found a crease in the rock that seemed comfortable enough, he sighed and lay down on his stomach.

Those dolphin-like creatures _really_ could swim. They weren’t as fast as Rin’s kind, but they covered a lot of distance, rationing their strength to be able to make it the entire way. Rin had never experienced this kind of swimming – except in school when he was about 120 moon cycles old, for practice. That was a long time ago.

He closed his eyes. That had been quite a day. He wondered for how long he would have to continue his stalking, and what he wanted out of it, really.

 _To meet that boy_ , he realized, opening his eyes again to stare at the ocean – and was instead met with a pair of eyes, blue as the ocean itself. Belonging to that beautiful boy he had seen earlier.

What.

 

~

 

“What are you doing here?”

Haruka fixed his eyes on the strange boy in front of him, an irritated frown on his face.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Maybe the other one was a bit slow. He didn’t look like their kind at all, with hair in a strange red color and eyes in the same hue, facial features sharp, teeth sharp... maybe they functioned in a different way than Haruka’s kind as well. Haruka had seen a flash of that hair earlier when he went for a swim around the small island; that was the reason he had gone down here to look for the source. He was beginning to regret his decision now.

The other boy went from looking surprised to confused to slightly angry, and started making sounds Haruka actually understood, even though his accent was a bit weird.

“Yes, of course I do! You have a stupid accent, that’s why I didn’t answer!”

Haruka rolled his eyes.

“You seem annoying. You’ve been following us. You have gills. You’re not like us. Why are you here?”

“N-no, yes I have, so what?” The boy moved backwards a little, until he bumped into the rock behind him. He nervously fiddled with the hair at the back of his hair. When Haruka didn’t answer, but simply stared at him, he took down his hand and looked confused once again. “… What, do you need to go up for air now?”

Haruka narrowed his eyes. “Soon. I want you to answer me first.”

The boy looked at him, looked away, and then firmly settled his gaze on Haruka.

“I’ll answer if I can go with you to the surface.”

What? What was this merman’s problem? Haruka exhaled, letting the last of the air in his lungs out with a sigh, and spurted upwards.

The red-haired boy followed him without trouble.

Once above the water, Haruka shook his head to get the wet hair out of his face. The other boy kept his head under the surface. Go figure.

“I guess you won’t understand if I speak with air-words, so I’ll keep to underwater speech, but we have to be quiet. And keep it short. People are sleeping. So speak. What do you want?”

Haruka had trouble seeing the boy’s face though the water; the soft waves made it twist in strange ways. The darkness didn’t help either.

“Can you tell me your name first?”

Haruka couldn’t believe this guy. So irritating.

“You really _are_ annoying. It’s Haruka,” he said in short clicks.

Now the boy smiled. _That_ wasn’t hard to see.

“Haruka. Haru. Haru is easier to pronounce. I’m Rin! I saw your swimming earlier today. That made me want to swim with you, to race you. Do you know about racing?”

“Don’t call me that. Only Makoto can use that name. And yes, of course I know about racing.” Rin’s smile widened, and Haruka felt his patience wane with each millimeter. “I don’t compete. Don’t get your hopes up.”

“Can I swim with you tomorrow, then? Swim with your flock?”

Haruka furrowed his brow for the umpteenth time that evening.

“… I guess you can. Probably. We’re just traveling anyway, so. I’ll ask the chief tomorrow. Don’t bother me while we’re swimming, though.”

Rin made an excited sound, and rose his hand in a fist. Haruka stared.

“Come on, you’re supposed to knock against it! With your fist!”

“No. I’m going to sleep. I’ll tell you tomorrow what the chief decided.”

And with that, Haruka turned and quickly swam back to where Makoto and his family were.

Heavens, what a bothersome person.

 

~

 

Swimming with Haruka was a lot of things, but most of all, Rin decided, it was _fun_.

They had been traveling together for some time now, stopping here and there at places which seemed totally random from Rin’s point of view, and getting to know Haruka and his culture a little more day by day. Since they slept mostly on land during the nights, they had this habit of lounging about in the water for an hour or so each morning, to make their dried out bodies damp and usable again. They usually had their breakfast during this morning routine as well, which made it a little less boring for Rin, who woke up as soon as the sun rose every day.

He also made friends with the boy Rin had seen together with Haruka the first day; his name was Makoto and he had to be the kindest and most thoughtful person Rin had ever met. Also, nervous. He was easy to talk to though, and the times Haruka got tired of Rin and the others in general and dashed off by himself, Rin and Makoto often fell into easy conversation.

Haruka was a little more difficult to talk to, Rin had to admit. But, just as Rin had predicted, he was an _amazing_ swimmer. Rin didn’t know if Haruka knew how much potential he had. Usually he just muttered about feeling free in the water, shrugging Rin’s comments about it off, _It’s not like that, I’m not going to make this into a habit, get off my case,_ but Rin didn’t miss the spark in his eye when he suggested they race to somewhere.

This day hadn’t been any different.

Haruka and Rin had arrived at the destination a lot earlier than the others, as usual, and Haruka lay panting on the island on some rocks while Rin drifted around in the water below him. The waters around here felt warmer; Rin guess it was because this island was a lot bigger than the other ones they’ve been to before, and most probably closer to the shore. An unwelcome, small, cold feeling entered his stomach.

“Hey, Haru?”

Haruka rose an eyebrow at Rin’s careful tone, and got up on one elbow to look at him.

“You’re going to stay here for a while now, right?”

“Yeah. This island is big, and some way over there is a town. I don’t know what kind of people live there, but I guess it’s as good as any.” He flopped back down on his back. “I’ll get to dive again.”

Rin could hear a smile in his voice.

“Yeah,” he agreed half-heartedly. When Haruka didn’t move, Rin spoke again. “Will you still swim with me?”

“There is no reason for me to now that we aren’t going anywhere.”

Rin ignored Haruka’s deadpan answer and asked, “Do you want to go with me?”

That got him to act. He immediately got up and flopped into the water beside Rin.

“What.”

Rin backed and entered a defensive stance.

“Yeah. Swim with me, Haru.”

Haruka glared, but Rin met his eyes with determination in his own. He had found something in Haruka. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but he knew that Haruka had to feel the same to some extent. He knew it.

“… I can’t leave. You can stay here, I guess. I’ll still be going to shallower waters every day, so… We… you can swim with me then.”

Rin couldn’t help his lips from curling into a smile. Haruka turned his head away at that, ears tinted slightly pink.

“You look embarrassing with that expression, stop it.”

Rin wasn’t an expert at picking his fights, but left Haruka with his blushing ears alone and went to take a look at the rest of the island.

The island really was big. Rin didn’t exactly have anything else to compare with, but it certainly was bigger than the last place the caravan had settled down at, and it seemed like some humans were living at one of the beaches on the western side. Wasn’t that dangerous? The northern side, where the merpeople would set up their home, was very rocky and probably the humans wouldn’t go there, but… Rin shook his head, decided that the clan probably knew what they were doing. He would tell Haruka to be careful either way. And then Rin would be with him, of course. Every day. _A little bit like settling with a mate_ , he thought with a smile, and then froze up. Shook his head again. That was a strange thought. Not entirely wrong, but strange, and it left a nagging, strange feeling in Rin’s body. What had he gotten himself into?

When Rin returned to where he had left Haruka, most of the others had arrived. Haruka sat perched on a rock a bit further out, talking to Makoto who still was in the water. Suddenly Haruka stretched, got ready to dive, and Rin stared while the dark-haired boy dove into the water with grace; the same grace which had captured Rin for almost two months now, because it hit him there and then, that,

_shit,_

_he is so important to me_

 

~

 

“Haru, what do you think will happen if I were to go above the surface?”

“You’ve never tried?”

“No, why should I?!”

“Exactly. Why do you even ask then?”

A disgruntled sound.

“Do you think I would have to hold the water inside like you do with your air?”

“How would I know?”

“But what do you _think_.”

There was barely even a question mark after that sentence.

“No. I don’t think so. I mean, you sort of absorb the oxygen directly, or? I have no idea.”

“But what if I die?”

A tired sigh.

“Do you think that would happen? Really?”

A pout.

“No, not really. But what if? Maybe it’s best if I held my hands over my gills…”

“How would that help?”

“To keep the water inside!”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“And you’re not helping!”

Rin snarled, gathered some courage, steeled his nerves, covered his gills with his hands anyway, because _what **if**_ , stuck his head above the water, briefly felt the strange sensation of air against his face and shoulders,

and pressed his lips against Haruka’s.

At first the other boy looked surprised, blue eyes, like the water but not, a mirror of the ocean, like the skies – and Rin knew this because he didn’t dare close his eyes – but then he felt Haruka’s lips move.

He was smiling.

And just as Rin felt the oxygen in his body slowly run out, a giddy feeling settled in his stomach—

_how many months have i waited for this_

—and he laughed, relief and happiness washing over him, as all the water poured gracelessly out all over himself and the lower part of Haruka’s face,

and he couldn’t care less.

 

~fin

**Author's Note:**

> as i said in the top notes, if you want any details or anything from this au, just hook me or myra up.
> 
> (AND THANKS FOR READING)


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